Is there a delay before getting your Winter Bash hats once you meet the requirements to get them?

I accepted by clicking I Love Hats and logged in. Meanwhile, I meet the requirements for some hats, but I can't see them anywhere. (They are still grayed out in the Winter Bash page.)

It obviously started, because I can see users collecting them already (not just the December 16th 2012 one).

Let's take this present post as an example. It was posted 45 minutes ago, and I got an upvote. I meet the requirements for the Constantipolitan Hat. But I still don't have it. I should have earned a few other hats before posting this question, and I don't have them either.

+1, Even I think there is a delay in getting the hats. Even though I got a few hats already(a few related to review), I have also met the requirements for some other hats but I haven't yet got any hats for them.
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iDevDec 19 '12 at 1:10

I'm having the opposite problem. I just got a "Tis the season" hat, which is supposed to be for commenting or voting on Dec 25. It's currently about Dec 24 18:20 UTC. I think I noticed a similar thing for the "I feel fine" hat. What timezone is being used to decide the day that activity occurs?
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BarmarDec 24 '12 at 19:22

3 Answers
3

Well, hats are badges you can wear, so I guess they behave like badges. In that, I mean that each hat, in the back end, has a serverside script which runs periodically, just like badges. The heavier scripts probably are run less often. Some badges take a day to award--I don't think that will be the case here, but it's similar.

The L'Chaim hat is the only hat being awarded retroactively. We wanted a way to celebrate Hannukah, but we couldn't fit this event inside the actual Channukah dates. So, we opted to retroactively award hats in this instance alone.

All other hats must be earned by actions performed between 00:00 UTC 19 December 2012 and 23:59 UTC 4 January 2013. Happy hat-hunting!

@animuson It should be that these are awarded for posts that were made after 19 December 2012 00:00 UTC
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AarthiDec 19 '12 at 1:09

1

@PhaDaPhunk Nope, shouldn't be much of a delay. Though it could be cacheing. It's always cacheing.
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AarthiDec 19 '12 at 1:09

Probably. You see, I just posted on meta (which is a hat too) and got an upvote so I meet the requirements 15 min ago.
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:11

1

Ah ha. Give it another 15 minutes or so; if you still don't have a hat, then there might be an error.
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AarthiDec 19 '12 at 1:12

@Aarthi I guess I should have it by now no ?
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:42

@PhaDaPhunk Well, MSO doesn't have a meta, so no one can get any of the "meta" hats on this site. :( You could get it on SO, though!
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AarthiDec 19 '12 at 1:51

@Aarthi .. I'm on the SO meta right ? SO do have a meta and i'm on it. Therefor, I posted on the meta. Anyway that's not the point I still didn't get any on SO either.
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:53

@Aarthi I just got one. (on meta tough) I guess there is only a big delay
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:55

@Aarthi: well, it's been days for me now since I earned my first hat, and my avatar is still not showing any... On any of the sites (stackoverflow, ux, programmers). Disappointed.
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Marjan VenemaDec 22 '12 at 14:01

@MarjanVenema That is super weird! Are you blocking scripts? Are you logged into winterba.sh? Are you running a proxy?
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AarthiDec 24 '12 at 5:19

I get that but it's started now right ? I see hats on a few profiles. There is even a leaderboard. And I accomplished some actions meanwhile that should have been giving me a hat AFTER in clicked on the I love hats button to get started.
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:00

I think most of the hats one the leaderboard are from the one retroactive hat, L'chaim. Try just giving it some time to award the hats you earned.
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murgatroid99Dec 19 '12 at 1:03

You can look at the picture I added in my question. There are many hats. Though I think you're right with the delay i'll have to wait.
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ʞunɥdɐpɐɥdDec 19 '12 at 1:09